Christian Zionism in America is becoming an exhausted force of mostly older white people on one side of the political spectrum relying on 50-year-old arguments that no longer have wide traction.
But given what is replacing it, we will miss it when it is gone.
Twentieth-century Christian Zionism, whatever its faults, was an accessible framework for Christian friendship with Israel and with Jews.
It was a shelter against antisemitism, which is not just hateful in itself, but is poisonous to society. With this form of Christian Zionism receding, ugly spirits are emerging that are hostile both to the nation of Israel and to Jews in general.
America is not ready for the consequences.
Continue reading at The Dispatch here.
Comment by Qohelet on July 27, 2026 at 1:30 pm
The strongest bulwark against antisemitism is a strong belief in human rights. Jews deserve acceptance, safety, and kindness because they are human.
Israeli and Jewish are not synonymous, and the attempt to make them such is becoming dangerous for Jews as the behavior of the Israeli government violates so many international norms about human rights.
Christians should always fight antisemitism. They should never defend a government that responds to a terrorist attack by killing 60 times as many people as died in the original attack. They should never defend a government that uses starvation as a weapon.
The best way to make sure Jews always have the human rights they deserve is for the Israeli state to stop trampling on the human rights of others. Debating Zionism (should Israel exist) right now is a rhetorical tactic to distract from the fact that what’s needed immediately is for Israel to stop killing Palestinians and Lebanese indiscriminately.
Comment by Wilson R. on July 27, 2026 at 1:41 pm
I continue to believe that these discussions would benefit from a clear definition of what the author means by Zionism.
Does it mean support for a Jewish homeland in portions of Palestine (as it did in 1948, when Israel was established)?
Does it mean Jewish control over all of Palestine, including the West Bank and Gaza (a goal favored by many Israelis today)?
Does it mean support for the policies of the current Israeli government (or any Israeli government)?
You will find all of these ways of understanding “Zionism” floating around today in the market of ideas.
And I cannot give a real answer to the question of whether I support Christian Zionism until I understand what the author means by that term.
Comment by David on July 27, 2026 at 1:51 pm
Not all the Jews in Palestine left after the failed revolt in 70 CE. Genetics has shown that present-day Lebanese, Jews, and Palestinians are all of Canaanite origin. Those who were not deported by the Romans, often into slavery, eventually converted to Christianity in the Byzantine period and then to Islam. European Jewish refugees, typically only 60% Middle Eastern, have no more claim to the land than those who have been living there for millennia.
Comment by Wilson R. on July 27, 2026 at 2:04 pm
David, I have also read that many Palestinians, like their Arab neighbors, claim Abraham as their ancestor. According to Genesis, God’s promise of the land of Canaan was for Abraham’s descendants, not specifically to Jews. You can thus make the argument that God was fulfilling this promise in allowing Abraham’s other descendants to live in this land for 2,000 years after the destruction of Judea.
Comment by Douglas LeBlanc on July 27, 2026 at 2:34 pm
I would love to see a serious study of why Christians support Israel today. I expect such a study would find many of us who support Israel without believing that that nation’s well-being has anything to do with hastening Jesus’ return to Earth.
Rather, many of us support Israel because we believe that God’s covenant with the ancient Israelites is permanent, only God the Father knows when Jesus will return, and Israel’s well-being greatly decreases the likelihood of a second Holocaust.
Comment by Wilson R. on July 27, 2026 at 2:52 pm
I support Jews and Judaism because (a) Jesus was a Jew who never stopped being a Jew and said he came to bring the Law to its fulfillment; (b) because Paul said that we Gentiles are grafts onto the tree of Judaism and are nurtured by it; and (c) because God made a covenant to bless the world through Abraham’s descendants.
Though the state of Israel was created before I was born, I supported it because of the practical necessity for a homeland for the Jewish people after the Holocaust (and after centuries of persecution leading up to it). This support was predicated on the idea of a Palestinian homeland alongside Israel, and I continued to support Israel’s right to exist even though the two-state ideal has never been realized (for reasons that have as much to do with the actions of Palestinians and Arab States as with the actions of Israel).
I still support the right of Israel to exist, but I cannot support the actions of the Israeli government, which has indiscriminately killed tens of thousands of innocents in Gaza and in the West Bank has established what amounts to an apartheid state with pogroms against Arabs who have lived on their own land for generations.
To me, Christian Zionism looks like affirming the rights of people on both sides to live in peace while condemning the types of pogroms, apartheid, and genocide that have traditionally been directed against Jews and now are being practiced by Israelis.
Comment by Corvus Corax on July 27, 2026 at 7:05 pm
There is a big difference between protecting the civil rights of American religious minorities, and supporting the ethnic-nationalist policy objectives of a sovereign state on the other side of the planet.
Furthermore, by wrapping endorsements of the Israeli state in theological garb, you undermine the intellectual basis for criticism of Christian Nationalism. Sauce for the goose and all that.
Comment by Gary Bebop on July 28, 2026 at 12:03 am
Mark Tooley is trying to do the righteous thing here, but an article like this inevitably attracts the usual antisemitism cloaked in anti-Israeli semantics. The people signaling their enmity for Israel here are the wrong people to be discussing the Jews and Christin Zionism. The biases pandered here are only slightly upstream of the overt tropes located in blaming and loathing of the Jews. If we want to discuss Christian Zionism, begin with the real thing, not these trolls.
Comment by Wilson R. on July 28, 2026 at 10:30 am
Here’s what actual anti-semitism looks like. There are two synagogues in my neighborhood. We have many Jewish neighbors. Because of that, neo-Nazis have targeted the area. They distributed vile leaflets that were as bad as anything in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. They showed up at one of the synagogues, which have armed security, and tried to intimidate sabbath worshippers. They marched in our downtown. They hung a banner praising our Republican governor as their kind of leader.
In response, we organized a yard sign campaign. I designed and ordered signs and delivered them to everyone who wanted one. The blue signs simply said, “We stand with our Jewish neighbors.” One of those Jewish neighbors said they were all heartened by the show of support. “It felt like a hug from the whole neighborhood,” she said. She showed us an article from an Israeli newspaper that wrote about the sign campaign.
Meanwhile, our governor said nothing against the Nazis. Our conservative Christian legislators howled about presumed anti-semitism on college campuses but nothing about the obvious and menacing anti-semitism right in our neighborhoods and on our streets..
In their book, it seems, anyone who criticizes the policies of the Israeli government is an anti-semite. The silence about real anti-semitism speaks volumes.
Comment by Gary Bebop on July 28, 2026 at 12:27 pm
It’s abundantly clear that some commenters believe their anti-Israeli stridency qualifies them to dominate discussion of Christian Zionism. They always front their synthetic “love for Jews” through anti-Israeli talking points. Their suppositions do not stand up to scrutiny, and it’s preposterous to think we will accept anti-Israeli diatribe as the baseline for a conversation about Christian Zionism.
Comment by Mark on July 28, 2026 at 1:59 pm
Gary Bebop,
Can a person be critical of the State of Israel without being an anti-Semite? If so, what would that look like?
Comment by Gary Bebop on July 28, 2026 at 10:37 pm
The very fact that some commenters make criticism of Israel their access code to a discussion of Christian Zionism tells us they want to control the discussion based on their suppositions about Israel. That pejorative note should not key the conversation. The conversation must start elsewhere, and Mark Tooley knows this. The conversation must start with acknowledgement of the biblical ground of God’s covenant with the Jews, the historic enmity of the world for the Jews, and the implications for Jewish survival, security, and flourishing. Let’s have that conversation. Then let’s hear what Jews say about their critics and critics of Israel. Let’s listen for awhile. Let’s acknowledge October 7th as template for global intifada. Antipathy for Israel and anything Jewish is increasing around the world. Lately it has become “a thing” here in America and in Canada, as it already acts out in Europe. This antipathy mixes fixations and fictions of all kinds to make an abominable stew. Read the signage posted in the streets and on college campuses. Jews recognize the merger of themes as vulgar and existential, not abstractly academic. Christians must acknowledge this threatening alchemy in formation and come to clarity, not blaming and scapegoating Israel. It’s a false start and a worrisome trend.
Comment by Wilson R. on July 29, 2026 at 10:32 am
Gary, the prophet Isaiah criticized Israel’s leaders as “rulers of Sodom.”
Shouldn’t we edit such anti-semitic texts out of our Bible?
Comment by Rami Fakhoury on August 1, 2026 at 8:52 pm
David
Your assertion is completely absurd. Please keep earthly politics and secular state justification out of the mission of Christ. Nonetheless, I support Israel within its 1948 border however I fully condemn the occupation of everything else iasillegal and criminal. If I may add, this has also caused irreparable harm to many Christian villages and communities. It has also caused religious strife with Muslim communities that deserve to live in peace. Please stop BS illogical and unfounded propaganda! Christ is all about the truth s d justice- please stop! Would love to debate you from a Christian point of view or otherwise. I want to support this organization but with your twisted logical and flawed reasoning it is difficult. Again, antisemitism in any form is evil and must be condemned and punished but that has nothing to do with your flawed logic.